Rerun
by Titan of Saturn
Summary: Alternate Universe. River Tam, scared and alone, needs to find a safe place for her brother Simon to hide from the Alliance, and from the Academy she just took him out of. Discontinued until further notice.
1. Setting

Disclaimer: I do not own the show Firefly. This story is gaining me no profit and is only for fun.

* * *

"2517 A.D."

Here's how it is:

The Earth got used up, so we moved out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths. Some, rich and flush with the new technologies. Some... not so much. The Central Planets, them as formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule. Few idiots tried to fight it, among them -- myself.

I'm Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity. She's a transport ship, Firefly class.

Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher, for some reason, and a bona fide Companion. There's a dancer, too. Pretty famous one. Took her genius brother out of some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You understand.

You got a job, we can do it. Don't much care what it is.

* * *

River Tam walked briskly along the Eavesdown bazaar docks on Persephone. She'd been jumping planets for a couple of weeks, trying to put her mind and money to good use. She scanned the ships first, picking out which ones she should and shouldn't go on. She'd come to the conclusion early on that it would be a bad idea to go on any of the upper class ships. They usually catered to the Alliance, and being an upper class woman herself, that was where they would be looking. No, even if she stood out on a lower ship, it was safer, and they were usually run down because they didn't favor the alliance.

Then she caught sight of what she was looking for, a small, beat up ship that was leaving in an hour. Its destination was Boros. She considered moving on for a second, Boros was heavily pro-Alliance. But, Boros was also where Sally lived, and Sally was a very close friend who might put her up for a while if she didn't know about River's new status as a Felon. She was also pretty sure Sally wouldn't ask about the chamber, and Sally wouldn't know what it was. That was as good a place as any, and though she knew it probably wouldn't be wise to consort with known relations, River needed someplace to get her feet under her.

"Hello!" A young girl, maybe twenty, calls out to her from her spot on the ship.

"Hello!" River calls back, smiling, because this girl reminds her of herself when she was younger. "Do you still have room?"

"Sure do, 'specially for someone like you. Ain't had no one fancy pick Serenity in a good while." River smiles again.

"Well, I can pay your fair price. All I need is a pair of arms to help me with my luggage."

"Well sure! I'll get Wash, he can do it."

"Thank you." And for some reason, River feels like she just made a good decision.

* * *

So? What's the verdict?

TS


	2. Mindset

Disclaimer: I do not own _Firefly_ or _Serenity_ and am gaining no profit by writing this story.

I was surprised with the response, so this came out quick. I hope it answers some of your questions. For everyone to know, I'm not just reversing the roles. They each will play their own roles and have their own personalities and reactions based on their circumstances. This is an AU, after all, I'm not going to just follow the plot. And for all you reviewers, if I do start falling into that, flame me!

TS

* * *

One second strange people had been putting him into a cryo-chamber, reciting phrases only River could have known to calm him, the next he was here. Where here was he didn't know, exactly. **_Firefly class ship, Serenity._** And there were people, lots of people he didn't know looking at him, staring at him. He'd never been good in front of people. That was River's place. 

The person closest to him was holding a gun, and a sudden, primal, fight or flight instinct overwhelmed him. In seconds he was no longer in the chamber, wedging himself in the corner farthest from the people as possible.

Then the noise erupted. The drugs from the cryo-system were fading fast, the only thing that kept him peaceful as he slept and now awoke. He clamped his hands over his ears, because it was just so _loud_…

"Simon." Hands pulled at his wrists, soft –upper class, no manual work done– small –short, most likely petite– and slender –most often a characteristic of a woman. But that didn't help him at all. Had the repercussions for striking out not been burned into his memory, he would have hit the person touching him.

"Simon, look at me Simon." Who was Simon? Why was this girl calling for Simon when she held him? "Simon, it's River. It's okay now Simon, your sister's here. It's going to be okay."

"River?" He knew that name. It pulled at his memory, nagged at him. He knew River.

"That's right Simon, it's me." **_Oh, what did they do to you? Simon, please be okay._** He knew the name of River, knew it as sister. Letters came to mind, messages he'd tried to write in code but he hadn't been able to think strait. Knew after he sent them that he'd done them wrong, that his sister would never figure it out. The one last hope in him dying as no rescue came.

But it had come. They had come and saved him and spoke to him like River, and she was here, now, right before him. He opened his eyes.

There she was. Dark hair curled expertly around her face, red lips pouting with worry, shining eyes watching him, waiting for his reaction. Intelligence like his gleamed in those eyes, preparing herself for the worst possible outcomes. _Insanity, brain damage, permanent ailments._ His brain supplied those scenarios automatically, letting him know what River was likely thinking.

"That's right, Simon. How do you feel?" How did he feel? How did he _feel_? How did she think he felt? He felt horrible, and he was cold, and he couldn't think strait, and it was so noisy – and he was free. Self doubt hit him like a space ship. What if he was wrong? What if he wasn't free?

What if they still had him?


	3. Explination

"Explain." Captain Reynolds demanded of the small girl. She was still a girl, really, by Alliance standards; only seventeen. But seeing how young their mechanic was, River decided that it must be different in the rim.

River placed a dainty hand on her brother's forehead, trying to calm herself. The Sheppard knew his way around an infirmary, though she could tell it was only by watching others.He knew enough to comment on how poorly it was stocked, though,and between the two of them they had gotten Simon sedated.

"Have you ever met a genius, Captain?" That hadn't been what she wanted to say at all, but she was so off balance emotionally she couldn't put her mind to the situation properly and assess what she should say. She couldn't take her eyes of Simon to take in reactions and adjust her approach to be the least offensive or informative. She was a genius, true, but she was still only seventeen. "This is Simon, my brother."

"I think we gathered that already." River finally looked up to meet the Captain's eyes, and liked what she saw there. He was a good man. But he was also a protective man, and she knew that if anything she said somehow threatened his crew, she'd be gone.

"Simon and I… they used to call us the 'Tam Smarts.' The genius Tam siblings." River giggled a little hysterically at that. "Simon was in the top four percentile of everything he did. It's my opinion he wasn't in the top one percentile onlybecause he never tried for his grades, but he'd tell you differently."

"And you?" River's eyes had strayed back towards her brother.

"I'm a different kind of genius than my brother. Simon thought in books and equations and facts, inside-the-box kind of thinking. Me, I can't think like that. I think in theory, grand scale. I'd tell you some to try to explain the difference better, but it'd go over your head. It goes over Simons head most of the time, so don't be offended."

"I'm not. I know how smart I am, and where my limits are. Continue." The Captain still had his arms crossed, not really defensively, but crossed all the same.

"Simon could have been anything, everything that he wanted to be. But he was raised by an upper-class father, who wanted his first and onlyson to do as he asked, to be the regular richboy and have no job at all. Simon, in contrast, wanted to be a doctor, to heal people. He passed all of the exams and requirements when he was twelve.

"Father was not impressed, and didn't allow him to start an internship. Simon was always trying to impress our Father."

"Can you get to the point please, miss?"

"When Simon was seventeen, we received an invitation across the Cortex. It was for an Academy that invited only those with high intelligence, to be with others like them and learn at their level. Needless to say, both Simon and I were ecstatic. We both wanted to go, but my dancing career was just starting to really pick up, and I love dancing more that the mysteries of how the universe came into existence.

"So I declined. But Simon, unfulfilled and without a drive, needed to be doing something to work his mind. And he went. A year later his letters started to get jumbled up, confusing, talking about some of my favorite theories but twisting them around and mixing them up. I knew something was wrong immediately, Simon knew my theories perfectly." Here River paused. She wasn't sure if it was for dramatic effect or not, but it just felt natural to pause there.

"It was code. It took me longer than it should have to riddle it out, but Simon got it mixed up in one of his letters, and I had trouble picking out which parts were coded. He'd jumbled the whole letters up, you see. But I finally got it." River looked solemnly up a Malcolm Reynolds then, uncharacteristically grim.

"They said 'Help me, they're hurting us' and then the letters stopped."

* * *

This has turned out to be a lot harder to do than I anticipated, but don't fear. I hope this answered some questions. Sorry for the long explanation, I know Simon made it shorter. But River is younger, less socially stiff, and I needed to explain how it turned out to be Simon instead of River. I hope this chapter was realistic. Thank you to my reviewers.

I do not own the characters, plot, or setting of the show _Firefly_.

TS


End file.
